The Facts
- Tennessee’s special legislative session ended Tuesday without any significant changes to the state’s gun laws despite the efforts of advocates months after the worst school shooting in the state’s history.
- Republican Gov. Bill Lee had called the special session on public safety to reform the state’s gun laws in response to the March killing of three students and three adults at Nashville’s Covenant School.
- Lee’s goal of passing a “red flag” law and other public safety measures was rejected by Republicans, who hold a supermajority in the state’s general assembly and view such laws as threats to citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
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The Spin
Democratic narrative
Even a school shooting that resulted in the deaths of innocent children couldn’t get Republicans, who are heavily supported by gun lobbyists, to pass the type of common-sense gun laws that can make communities safer. Even worse, Republicans in Tennessee continue to do what they can to stifle opposition speech. Tennessee needs better representation to stand up to lethal gun violence.
Republican narrative
Always in a hurry to exploit a tragedy to advance their assault on the Second Amendment, Democrats were again advocating for laws — namely a so-called “red flag” law — that would have done nothing to stop the Covenant shooter. Most gun restrictions are useless in the face of criminals and mentally unstable people who will stop at nothing to commit an egregious act. The Tennessee legislature did what it could to make the state safer within the Constitution.
Metaculus Prediction
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